Pronunciation on the mountain: "The Climb" is about two friends and their unequal male relationship
Photo:Prokino
Two racing cyclists pant up a mountain pass, the sun burns mercilessly. One is the connoisseur and talks about cadence, the other is a bit chubby, quite out of breath and grateful for the experience. However, it quickly turns out that the goal of this effort is not to achieve physical fitness, but to speak bitter truths.
One of them slept with the other's girlfriend several times, including shortly before the wedding that had already been scheduled. The protest is drowned out in rattles, the cadence is finally in the bucket, and once again it shows that life is sometimes mercilessly uphill.
"The Climb" is about two dissimilar friends and their toxic relationship. Mike (r.) Tries to ruin his relationship with Marissa for his friend Kyle.
Photo:Prokino
That is roughly the content of the short film "The Climb", which caused a sensation in early 2018 first at festivals and then online. The makers and leading actors Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Martin worked with a rather obvious metaphor, but the seven and a half minutes brought together an absurdly laconic humor with a noticeable will to style in a single camera shot in an inspiring way. Now the two friends have made a full-length feature film from "The Climb". Unfortunately, that wasn't such a good idea.
Do you have any idea what sentence must come now? No, one shouldn't deal with stupid things in film reviews that made it difficult to write essays in school. So we leave that with the brevity and the spice here, especially since the problem of "The Climb" is rather a hearty over-seasoning, too many ideas that adds a weight to the airy short film in the long version.
This can already be seen in the opening sequence, which repeats the scenario of the original, only this time it takes place in the south of France instead of California and spices up the open end with unnecessary action - Mike (Covino), the cheater, is fighting a French driver, the also still drives a duck.
From there, the script continues to devote itself to the dysfunctional friendship between loudmouth Mike and sweetheart Kyle (Marvin), who have been buddies since high school. Although it's not sure who the relationship is more toxic for: the constantly busted Kyle or Mike, whose ruthless manner makes himself unhappy.After the incident while cycling and the wedding that was canceled, the two did not see each other for years. Until they meet again at a funeral and renew their friendship.
It doesn't take long, however, before Mike gives everything to spoil his friend's new relationship with Marissa (Gayle Rankin). This time supposedly to protect him. Because Kyle's family is also convinced: Now Marissa is buttering the gentle giant.
The story, arranged in chapters, shows a skiing vacation that ends in alcohol-soaked misunderstandings, a day of ice fishing that nearly kills Kyle, and another attempt at marriage that is interrupted with serious consequences.
Mike even shows up at Kyle's wedding and wants to prevent the marriage - but with unforeseen consequences.
Photo:Prokino
Covino and Marvin always condense and condense their story like a short film. When put together, however, the result is a mosaic that lines up section by section without creating a larger picture. Although the psychology of male friendships should actually promise a rich harvest for a satire.
Covino and Marvin, however, are interested in the superficial effects. Be it the dramaturgical ones, which result from the narrative style that works with temporal leaps, or the stylistic ones through complex choreographed, long tracking shots. Once they show a failed Christmas in a long drive through the window from the outside. The sequence was certainly challenging to accomplish in terms of film technology and looks good, but it creates a huge distance from the characters in favor of a circus trick. "The Climb" is full of such moments.
The stylistic self-love ensures that this comedy runs out of joke after a very short time, as does the strange image of men that is celebrated here. Mike and Kyle have the inner maturity of four-year-olds, but the film never gets away from their behavior.
The makers refrain from infantile puns, with which, for example, the comedy ruffian Will Ferrell makes his husband-children ridiculous. But they take their characters far too seriously and stylize them cramped as actually nice dudes who mean well, each other and their fellow men. Poor Melissa, on the other hand, has to serve as a sly, cold and manipulative beast.
"The Climb" ends with another bike excursion that evokes something like a patriarchal ideal: Boys are only really happy with boys, and the (male) offspring learn to ride through life without training bikes. In its platitude, that is unintentionally funny.
Icon: The mirror